Celebrate ACME's 5th Birthday with our Fall Fundraising Drive!

Photo by Padre Denny, via Flickr (CC license)

Greetings media literacy education friends and colleagues, and happy FIFTH BIRTHDAY from all of us here at ACME!

In honor of ACME's fifth birthday party, we invite you to consider joining or renewing your membership to the Action Coalition for Media Education. If you are already a member, you already know about ACME's TEN BENEFITS of membership.

But, if you are new to us, you may not know that five years ago this fall, more than three hundred scholars, media educators, journalists, public health advocates, and interested citizens gathered in Albuquerque, New Mexico to create something unique. The world's first independently-funded and volunteer-run media literacy education coalition: ACME.

The Action Coalition for Media Education's mission is simple: To champion critical and independent media literacy education, media production and media reform/justice initiatives FREE OF funding from Big Media and their Fortune 40 allies. Read more about our mission.

During the past five years, we have been busy. Between 2002 and 2007:

ACME leaders have assembled a renowned group of media education scholars to serve as our advisory board, including citizen/scholars Robert McChesney, Jean Kilbourne, Sut Jhally, and John Stauber.

ACME leaders have hosted three national media education Summits - in New Mexico (2002), California (2004), and Vermont (2006) - bringing together hundreds of media specialists from across the continent to share ideas, resources, and information. Read more about our 2006 Summit.

ACME has created a wide variety of FREE media education/teaching resources on the most provocative media topics of our time: war and peace, news and censorship, advertising and public health, like this fall's "Challenging Censorship" tool kit. See more of our teaching resources.

ACME members have begun creating state, provincial and local chapters to link media educators where they live and work. Read more about our chapters.

And now, as of this fall, ACME has created a brand-new web site to allow for more conversation and greater sharing of resources. Built using the Open Source content management system, Drupal, ACME's new website features new opportunities to connect media educators, independent media makers, activists and others through Social Networking Tools and FREE Teaching Resources available under a Creative Commons license.

And this is where we need your help.

We are a coalition entirely dependent on the support and good will of our partners - to help us continue our good work, we are asking you to renew your annual ACME membership today! Join us at http://acmecoalition.org/donate

By supporting ACME, you enjoy access to our free resources as well as deep discounts on a wide variety of media education resources. By supporting ACME, you participate in the ongoing conversations that keep our field alive and vibrant. And by supporting ACME, you help us prepare to take our next steps as an organization - as we look towards our fourth national Summit next year, our first paid staff position by fall 2008, and continued growth and development of our brand new web site.

And, for the first sixty ACME members/partners who renew their ACME membership, we will provide you with a FREE multimedia package worth $150, including:

* A copy of the 2006 book The Best War Ever! Lies, Damn Lies, and the Mess in Iraq, written by PR Watch co-founders Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.

* A TV-B-Gone remote control device, courtesy of ACME member and inventor Mitch Altman.

* A DVD copy of MEF's film "Playing Unfair: The Media Image of the Female Athlete."

* A DVD copy of the new theatrical production "Target Marketing: The Musical," produced by www.memefilms.org.

* A DVD copy of "Neo's Children: The Seven Ingredients of our 21st Century Media Culture" interactive lecture.

* Plus our ever-popular "What the FCC Is Going On" button and "Media Buy The People" bumper sticker.

All for joining ACME today. And, if you join ACME online, we'll send you your "2007/08 ACME membership package" immediately.

Yours for a more media literate and humane world!

Sincerely,

Bob McCannon, ACME Co-President

Rob Williams, Ph.D., ACME Co-President

on behalf of the entire ACME board:

Alison Brzenchek, Reclaim Media Services (RMS)

Bill Densmore, the Media Giraffe Project (MGP)

Josh Golin, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC)

Kendra Olson Hodgson, the Media Education Foundation (MEF)

Veda Renfrow

Colin Rhinesmith, (Emerson College)

Sara Voorhees, the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA)

Bill Yousman, Central Connecticut State University (CCSU)

Phyllis Zrzavy, Franklin Pierce University (FPU)